SECRET
THE COMMUNIST PARTY
AND
THE NEGRO
1953-1956
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
John Edgar Hoover, Director
declassified
Authority -$!&• —
-- Delia
«eRET“
SECRET'**
THE COMMUNIST PARTY
AND
THE NEGRO
1953 — 1956
October 1956
Federal Bureau of Investigation
United States Department of Justice
John Edgar Hoover, Director
56 S
SECRET
SEGftfff
PREFACE
This monograph is a study of the relations between the Communist
Party, USA, and the Negro people in the United States and is a supplement
to a previous monograph The Communist Party and the Negro. which covered
the period 1919-1952. The present volume embraces the 1953-1956 period.
It has been compiled from public-source, confidential, and secret material.
SECRET-
SUMMARY AM) CONCLUSIONS
A. Summary
The Communist Par ty, USA, despite its concentrated efforts, has
failed to attract even a significant minority of the Negroes in the United States
to its program. While it attempts to practice its policy of agitation and
propaganda among the Negroes on a nationwide basis, the majority of its
attention, is devoted to those Negroes living in the Southern States. This has
been particularly evident during the past year in that the Party has concentrated
upon organizing the unorganized workers In the South, especially those of the
Negro race.
It strives to promote its alms through Negro communist front
organizations and by infiltrating and controlling legitimate Negro groups.
One of its chief difficulties has been, and continues to be, the problem of
white chauvinism, i. e, , supremacy of the white race. At the present time,
it can be stated that along with th e decline in the^national membership of
the Communist Party, USA, the Party has experienced an Increasingly
greater decline, percentage wise, In' its Negro membership.
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B.
Conclusions
jCommunist Party, USA^in relation
to the Negro in the United States from 192ft to 1956 was 'defined
in its two slogans: , T equal rights” and "seU- determination" for
the Negroes in the ,T 6lac£"Belt, " which is that portion of the
Southern United States cont ain i n g a large concentration of the
Negro population. Communists asserted that the Negroes living
in this area constituted a separate nation and should be given
their rights accordingly. In early 1956, the Party modified its
advocacy of T1 s elf -deter minationj’ but its general propaganda on
"equal rights' 1 and other issues remains essentially the same.
2. The activities of the Communist Party, USA, are motivated
not by the desire to improve the status of the Negro in our
society, but to exploit legitimate Negro grievances for the
furtherance of communist aims.
3. Communists in the United States believe that the movement for
Negro f reedom in this country merges with the struggle of
colonial peoples, particularly the darker races, to free them-
selves from their "oppressors, ,f The Communist Party, USA,
links this struggle with the fight for peaceful coexistence
throughout the world.
4. The Com muiiis t Party, USA, places par ticular emphasis on
g etting the support of N e groes em ployed in basic industries,.
It now regards the job of organizing the unorganized workers,
especially in the South, as one of its fundamental tasks.
5* The Party plans to advance its Negro program in the South
through its colonization program which was initiated in order
to place militant and devoted Party members as workers in
basic or vital industries. Under this program, communists
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selected for such assignments move to new areas, assume
altered backgrounds and identities, obtain employments -a
industry, and gradually begin to organize people believed to
be "progressive. ,r
6. The Supreme Court decision of May 17, 1954, outlawing
segregation in the public schools in the United States, is
regarded by the Communist Party as a decisive victory for
the Negro race, and the Party has attempted to implement and
exploit the enforcement ol desegregation in every possible
way. The case most widely publicized by the communist press
in this respect was that of Anther ine J, Lucy, a Negro who
was the first of her race to enroll in a hitherto all-white
university.
7. The Communist Party has also exploited the alleged murder
of a Negro youth in Mississippi using this case as an
opportunity to further its agitation and propaganda campaign
among the Negroes.
8. One _of^the_main po ints i n the Co mmunist Party 1 s program
in its str uggle f or eguaO’ig®Tor_Ne^bes ii its’attempt to,
increase Negro representation in the executive,; legislative,
and judicial branches of state and national governments.
Although the Party is conducting this struggle on a nationwide
basis, its main emphasis is in the Southern States where
Negro representation, is disproportionate according to
population.
9. The Communist Party, USA, strongly opposes segregation in
housing, pointing out that this is one of the issues around
which Negro- white unity can be built.
10. The two principal Communist Party-Negro front groups until
recently were the National Negro Labor Council and the
National Association of Negro Trade Unionists. At the end
of April, 1956, the former was dissolved due to financial
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difficulties and to its desire to circumvent registering with
the Attorney General of the United States as a communist
front organization. The latter is a comparatively new group
whose purpose is to organize the unorganized workers,
concentrating strongly on. the Negroes.
Communists in the United States have attempted to infiltrate
and gain control of legitimate Negro-fraternal, protest- and-
improvement organizations. To date, their efforts have been
unsuccessful on a state or national level, although there have
been some instances where the Communist Party has gained
control of isolated chapters.
The Communist Party, USA, has been compelled throughout
its history to wage a continuing fight against white chauvinism,
i. e, , the supremacy of the white race. Despite this struggle,
white chauvinism has increased within the Party in recent
years and is presently of grave concern to Party leaders.
^egi^ r mentoership_within the Co mmun ist Party, USA, as of.
June, 19 56, was estimated to be sev enjaer cent of the total
naHonJ^^ of the Party . The total hatiohal member-
sfiip was estimated afsEghlly less than 20, 000.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
i
PREFACE
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ii
A. Summary „ ti
B. Conclusions , , .in
I. INTRODUCTION 1
II. COMMUNIST PARTY. USA. ON VARIOUS ASPECTS OF
THE NEGRO QUESTION TODAY . 5
A. International Aspect 5
B. The Negro in the Fight for Peaceful Coexistence ... 6
C. Negro "Self-Determination" 7
D. The Negro in Industry 10
E. Communist Party Colonization Program ....... 13
F. Civil Rights 14
1 . Supreme Court Decision Outlawing Segregation
in Public Schools, May 17, 1954, and Subse-
quent Rulings Affecting Publicly Owned Recre-
ational Facilities and Interstate Transportation . 14
a. Autherine J. Lucy , 19
b. Bus Boycott in Montgomery, Alabama ... 21
2. Hie Till Case 23
3. Negro Representation 25
4. Housing 27
HI. PRINCIPAL COMMUNIST PARTY-NEGRO FRONT GROUPS . 30
A.
B.
National Negro Labor Council ... ,30
National Association of Negro Trade Unionists .... 33
1. Michigan Association of Negro Trade Unionists. , . 33
2. Negro Trade Unionists Committee. „ , „ 35
3. National Association of Negro Trade Unionists
of .New Jersey 35
4. Amalgamation of these-three organisations ....... 36
IV. THE COMMUNIST PARTY — NEGRO-FRATERNAL,
PROTEST-AND- IMPROVEMENT ORGANIZATIONS" . ■ , 37
A. National Association lor the Advancement of
Colored People 37
B. Improved Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of the
World 44
V. RESULTS OF COMMUNIST PARTY ACTIVITY DIRECTED
TOWARD NEGROES 49
A. Effects within the Communist Party (White Chauvinism). . 49
B. Effects on Noncommunist Negroes (Negro Membership
in the Communist Party) „ 53
VL SOURCES 54
SECRET
I. INTRODUCTION
A previous monograph The Communist Party and the Negro, dated
February, 1953, covered the period 1919-1952* As indicated therein, the
Communist Party, USA, has devoted an extraordinary amount of its time,
funds, propaganda, and personnel to recruiting members from among the
fifteen, million Negroes who comprise approximately ten per cent of our
total population. The failure of its efforts in this respect is best attested to
by the fact that as of June, 1956, active, dues -paying Negroes constituted
seven per cent of the total Party membership.
Its basic program in this field until recently has been set forth in
its two slogans- "equal rights" and "self-determination" for the Negroes in
the "Black Belt* 11 The term "Black Belt" as used by communists refers to
that portion of the Southern United States containing a large concentration
of the Negro population. At varying intervals, depending on the extent of
the Negro population, communists describe it as including parts of southern
Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi,
Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee* and Texas. Marxists have maintained
that the "Black Belt" contains all the necessary characteristics for becoming
a separate nation and accordingly advanced the theory of "self-determination, "
i< e . , the formation of an independent national state for the Negroes in. that
area. Marxists, however, qualified this theory by stating that whenever
the right of ^self-determination" conflicted with the interests of the "working
class" (e, g. , the Communist Party, USA), it must be subordinated. This
was evidenced during World War n when the Communist Party, USA,
de-emphasized "self- determination" in order to promote national unity
leading to greater aid to Soviet Russia.
Although the condition of the Negro in American society has
improved during the last thirty years, the Communist Party, due to its
subservience to and domination by the Soviet Union, has never recognized
this fact and has continued to agitate among the Negroes on the same old
themes. It has, therefore, stressed its demands for "equal rights" and
"self-determination" with varying degrees of emphasis, governed not by
any change in the status of the Negro in this country, but by the exigencies
of the Soviet Union in international affairs.
In early 1956, however, the Communist Party, USA, reappraised
its position on "self-determination 11 and decided to modify the advocacy of
,T s elf- deter ruination" for the Negroes in the TT Black Belt, ” While the Party
has altered its policy in this respect, its stand on "equal rights" for the
Negro race in the United States remains unchanged.
Numerous reasons can be adduced to explain the failure of the
Communist Party, USA, in spite of its almost overwhelming efforts, to
attract even a significant minority of the American Negro population to its
program Probably the most obvious is the realization by the Negro (as
well as the vast majority of Americans) that the constant shifts in the
Communist Party "line" are determined by the needs of the Soviet Union
and not by any factor intrinsic to the American way of life or by the Party’s
interest in Negro welfare. Other reasons, more specifically applicable to
the Nogro f include the Communist ^Party's previous espousal of the theory
of "self-determination" (which is too similar to segregation for Negroes),
in spite of the Negro’s deep-rooted desire for total equality within the
American society; its severe criticism of Influential Negro clergymen,
particularly during the Late 1920 t s and early 1930’ s; its inability to justify
Russia’s aid to Italy when the latter invaded Ethiopia; its subversion of the
National Negro Congress, which originally showed promise of becoming an
important Negro Improvement organization; its activities during World War H ;
when it admittedly soft-pedaled" its fight for Negro rights; and the opposition
of influential noncommunist Negroes and Negro organizations.
The fact that the activities of the Communist Party, USA, are
motivated not by the desire to improve the status of the Negro in our society,
but to exploit legitimate Negro grievances for the furtherance of communist
aims is dearly evidenced by instructions issued by the Party to its members
as early as 1925 and repeatedly applied since then:
"The aim of our Party in our work among the Negro masses
is to create a powerful proletarian movement which will fight and
lead the struggle of the Negro race against exploitation and
oppression in every form and which will be a militant part of the
revolutionary movement of the whole American working class, to
strengthen the American revolutionary movement by bringing into
it the 11, 500 s 000 Negro workers and farmers in the United States
to broaden the struggles of the American Negro workers and
farmers, connect them with the struggles of the national minorities
and colonial peoples of all the world and thereby further the cause
of the world revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat. " 1
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H. COMMUNIST PARTY, USA, ON VARIOUS ASPECTS
OF THE NEGRO QUESTION TODAY
A. International Aspect
The Communist Party, USA, hailed the conference of Asian and
African peoples at Bandung, Indonesia, in April, 1955, as marking "the
march forward of the once-subjected people of Asia and Africa, " and as
"one of the dicisive world forces that led to the constructive conference of
the Big Four recently in Geneva. " American communists believe that the
movement for Negro freedom in the United States merges with the "struggle
of the colonial and darker peoples of the Far East— as well as of Africa—
against the common enemy— Wall Street imperialism. " Louis E. Burnham,
who has been reported to be a member of the Communist Party, * stated in
December, 1955, that?
"This new world, so dramatically united at the historic
Bandung conference, represents an irresistible force in world
affairs. The movement for Negro freedom will win, not in
isolation from, but only in conscious and principled alliance
with all forces throughout the world who are its natural allies*
One high-ranking communist leader, in speaking of the
people in the Southern United States, asserted:
♦All information in this monograph identifying persons or organizations
with the communist movement has been furnished by informants or sources
which have supplied reliable information in the past.
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" 7 They are contributing to the lore of oppressed people
all over the world in their struggle for liberation from the
system of racism, terror, lynching, and assassination in the
deep South. Undoubtedly, they are inspired by the great con-
ference of colored peoples which took place in Bandung last
summer, 1 "3
Claude Lightfoot, Negro communist leader in Illinois who was
convicted under the Smith Act of 1940, * commented that:
” ’In recent years, the upsurge of the colonial people and
the Chinese Revolution have had their effect in heightening the
militancy and the consciousness among my people, * , „ and
strengthened their unwillingness to accept the theory of
"gradualism" in the winning of civil rights. ’ "4
B. The Negro in the Fight for Peaceful Coexistence
The Communist Party, USA, for the past several years has
stressed the struggle for peace as one of the most important tasks for the
communists in this country as well as throughout the world. Subsequent to
the July, 1955, conference for foreign ministers of the United States,
France, Great Britain, and the U.S.S.R* held in Switzerland, the Party
re-emphasized the possibility of peaceful coexistence between the United
States and the Soviet Union. The conference itself, in the Party’s analysis,
♦Title 18, U, S„ Code, Section 2385 (1948 Edition), popularly known as the
Smith Act, makes it unlawful for anyone to knowingly teach and advocate the
duty and necessity of overthrowing and destroying the Government of the
United States by force and violence. The Act was passed by Congress in 1940.
was a "turning point" and represented the "beginning of the end of the
cold war. "
In connection with the role of the Negro in this fight for peace,
the Communist Party recognizes that the "Negro people exerts considerable
strength in the fight for peace, especially in the context of its most direct
and immediate concern- -the fight for civil rights. " The Party feels that:
"There can be no successful effort to involve great masses
of the Negro people in the fight for peace which does not take
this struggle as its starting point. . .
The Party further believes that:
"The second specific aspect of Negro peoples participation
in the fight for peace is the special importance of the struggle
against colonialism. . , .vast possibilities exist to enlist the mass
of Negro people in the mounting struggle to reverse the Dulles
policy of military alliance in the Middle East and South Asia and
substitute for it a policy of national freedom and peaceful
coexistence and a vast plan of economic assistance, without
strings, to the und er developed countries of Asia and Africa."^
C. Negro "Self-Determination"
During the period 1928-30, the Communist Party, USA, define!
the Negro question in the United States as "that of an oppressed nation" in
the "Black Belt"— struggling for self -deter mination, Tt and an oppressed national
minority in other parts of the country— fighting for full democratic rights.
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By ’’self-determination," the Party maintained that the Negroes as a separate
race in the Southern States constituted a majority of the population and had
the right; if they so desired; to secede from the United States and form
their own government and nation.
This conception was adhered to and developed by the Party
throughout the years so that by 1954 communists asserted that:
"This conception of the Negro question as a national question
is the most fundamental theoretical* contribution our Party has
made to the fight for Negro freedom. It is this insight, for
example, which underlies the struggle for all-class unity of the
Negro people, * and for alliance of the whole Negro people - and "
the working class* in common struggle against imperialist
oppression. , „ ?
In early 1956, however, the Communist Party, USA, reappraised
its position on "self-determination" and decided to modify its advocacy of
"self-determination" for the Negroes in the "Black Belt " However, it will
still consider the Negroes as constituting a national as well as a racial
minority. One high-ranking Negro communist leader has taken the position
that the Negro people in the United States do not constitute a nation
Eugene Dennis, general secretary of the Communist Party, USA,
instead are a nationality.
in commenting upon this decision, stated:
♦Under lined portion italicized in original text.
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", » . In my opinion we should frankly acknowledge that while
the Negro question in the Deep South remains a national and an
agrarian question, for some time developments in the South have
not*moved in the direction of the establishment of a Negro nation.
"The basic demands of the Negro people in the South, which
they themselves put forward and are struggling for, are for the
right to vote and representative government, for full equality in
employment, education and in all other spheres of life, and for
achieving serious reforms in agriculture.
"In re- appi ais ing our position on self-determination in the
Black Belt, our Party should emphasise, as never before, that
the struggle for Negro rights and freedom, north and south of
the Mas on- Dixon line, has emerged as a general, national
democratic task, upon the solution of which depends the democratic
and social advance of the whole nation, particularly of the workers
and farmers. TT ®
It can be seen, therefore, that the Party has modified its policy
of "self-determination, ” This is a major development in Negro matters for
the Party. However, its general propaganda relating to "equal rights" and
other issues remains essentially the same as does the ultimate goal of the
Communist Party, USA, — the establishment of a socialist United States. In
February, 1936, a member of the Party 7 s national Negro commission stated:
. . It is generally known that the proletariat of a national
movement has both a national and class mission to perform. This
is likewise true of the Negro proletariat in our country. It has the
task of leading the Negro people to national liberation, and, in
conjunction with their fellow white workers, of putting an end to
class exploitation by leading the American people to Socialism. . . . 1
^Underlined portion italicised in original text.
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D. The Negro in Industry
Throughout its history, the Communist Party, USA, has placed
particular emphasis on the importance of gaining the support of Negroes
employed in basic industries. At the present time, the Party attaches the
utmost significance to the merger of the AFL-CIO which took place on
December 5, 1955. As fax as the Negro problem is concerned, the Party
claims that:
"The historic significance of the merger convention's
position on the Negro question lies in the fact that it registered
a major defeat for the racist policy of Gompersism; at the same
time it registered a fundamental and basic victory for the policy
of Negro-white unity, of advancing and strengthening the Negro-
labor alliance, of a single trade-union center of all working
people, white and Negro alike*
"Its significance is to be found in that after a century of
bitter struggle, the decisive national center of organized labor
is committed formally and officially to a line cf Negro-white
unity, to a line of equal rights for the Negro workers in industry
as well as in the labor movement* Tf *10
In. this connection, the Party is referring specifically to the
action of the convention regarding:
. . The resolution on civil rights, the speech by Thurgood
Marshall, special counsel for the NAACP, ** the speech of Carey
on the civil rights resolution, the added statement in the speech
^Entire quotation italicized in original.
**National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
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J ?
of Adlai Stevenson in his criticism of the violence directed
against the Negro people in Mississippi, And last; but not
least; the election of two Negro vice Presidents to the Executive
Committee of the AFL-CIO 1,11
The Communist Party takes credit for the emergence of Negro
leadership at the convention by stating:
", «, , The struggle for Negro leadership was a product in the
first place of the consistent and sustained demands of the
progressives and Communist forces in the labor movement for
the last 20 years, . , .
Among the tasks now facing the Party as a result of the merger
is that of backing a drive for organizing the unorganized workers particularly
in the South.
"Of all the immediate tasks facing the AFL-CIO with respect
to Negro- white unity none is more important than that of
organizing the unorganized in the South. . . „ The demand for
organizing the South must reach a level of intensity that will
result in the Federation’s passing over from words to deeds on
this question.
Other problems confronting the Party include:
1. f1 an interpretation of the constitution to help end —
bars to Negro workers in affiliated international unions. , .
16
2. . , an end to Jim Crow locals "
3. * .the need to rally support for the civil rights
mobilization announced by the UAW* and the NAACP, . ,
♦United Automobile, Aircraft & Agricultural Implement Workers of America.
~ 11 -
In addition to advocating certain demands arising out of the
AFL-CIO convention, the Communist Party continues to demand a policy
of nondiscrimination for Negroes in industry. It claims that Negroes, in
the great majority of cases, are only able to obtain positions as laborers,
that there "has been no gain in breaking the 'last- to-be “hired, first- to- be -
fired' pattern of discrimination against the Negro people,
This is particularly true in the transport, garment, maritime,
and electrical industries. Communists feel that:
"Special attention should be given to current efforts to
squeeze Negro and Puerto Hie an workers out of longshore
and maritime* * . . "
"The main channel* through which such struggles for jobs
for Negroes can best be conducted is the machinery of the trade
unions — especially the network of shop committees and the
regular programs of the unions. "18
They believe that the struggle to abolish Jim Crow in the
railroad industry is of "prime importance" to the advancement of the fight
for jobs and state that:
", . . The basic aim of this fight must be to win equality for
Negroes on every type of job which exists in the industry —
conductors, ticket agents, locomotive engineers, firemen,
brake men, switchmen, station masters, head baggage men,
clerks, dispatchers. , , . "1®
♦Underlined portion italicized in original text.
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■E. Communist Party Colonization Program
One method by which the Communist Party hopes to advance its
Negro program in the South is through its so-called colonization program*
It anticipates a very difficult struggle in that area and, in the latter part of
1955, issued instructions that a number of people, both Negro and white,
should be sent into the Southern States where they are to obtain industrial
jobs. These potential colonizers are to be childless couples, preferably
between 21 and 34 years of age. Any person having a reputation as a radical
or a communist will not be considered. Selections are to be made, at least
in part, from Party members presently active in Labor Youth League* work,
Those individuals chosen as colonizers are instructed to remain
in their new assignment on a more or less permanent basis, "root" them-
selves in their new jobs, and for the present conceal their communist
tendencies. They will be concentrated in the larger cities of the South
especially Birmingham, Memphis, and cities in Mississippi.
Those colonizers assigned to the textile industry are
financed, if possible, through their own means or supported by their
*The Labor Youth League has been designated by the Attorney General as
coming within the purview of Executive Order 10450.
Communist Party district. The national office will, if necessary, defray
any expenses^ For a period of about one year, the colonizer is told to
make no attempt to organize or recruit for the Communist Party taut to
spend this time establishing himself in the community. He is to become
active in church, and civic affairs thus establishing a good reputation in the
community. He is not to have any open contact with the Party in that area
nor to get a reputation as a Party member or sympathizer . By the end of a
year, he is to begin to organize persons who he believes are "progressive. fT
Colonizers are expected to receive indoctrination courses prior
to leaving for their assignments. It is reported that this colonization
program has been started by the Party and that plans are being made to fix
a certain quota of colonizers to be sent down South during 1956. Plans are
also allegedly being made by the Party to have a number of their trust-
worthy youth members, who are attending college, transfer to colleges in
the South to enable them to carry on Party work there.
F. Civil Rights
1. Supreme Court Decision Outlawing Segregation in Public Schools,
May 17, 1954, and Subsequent Rulings Affecting Publicly Owned
Recreational Facilities and Interstate Transportation
On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States decreed
that compelling segregation in the public schools on the basis of race is a
- 14 =
\/ v
denial of constitutional rights. The doctrine of “separate but equal"
facilities handed down by the Court in 1896 (Pies ay v, Ferguson) was set
aside. On May 31, 1955, the Supreme Court implemented this decision
by stating the principle previously announced should be carried out "with
all deliberate speed. " This ruling permitted account to be taken of local
conditions and requirements affecting the manner and timing of
implementation.: This principle was also found applicable in cases
involving racial segregation in publicly owned recreational facilities, and
adhered to in decisions of the Federal Interstate Commerce Commission
embracing segregation in interstate transportation.
The Communist Party, USA, hailed the 1954 decision of the
Supreme Court as a:
Tt . . „ real victory for democracy in the United States,
and especially lor the harassed Negro people. It will have
world-wide repercussions. The decision is body blow
against the whole jimcrow system, which has for so many
decades persecuted the Negro masses and disgraced this
country. All the friends of freedom will hail this great
democratic achievement.
The Party also took its share of credit for this achievement:
"The-Supreme Court decision on segregation in education
reflects the tremendous new growth in the Negro liberation
movement, . , . It is due in no small part to the pioneering role
of the Communists and the Left in the struggle for Negro
rights. "21
The Party pointed out, however, that a legal victory does not
mean the automatic end of segregation but necessitates a drive for its
enforcement:
,f . . . The legal form does not correspond to the social
actuality. The struggle for equal rights cannot rest with
legal victories, important as they are, but must drive to
enforce* such victories and change the conditions of day-to-
day living. Tf 22
In this connection, communists have attempted to implement and
exploit the enforcement of desegregation in every possible way:
TT , , . The struggle against segregation should be tied up with
the struggle against jim crow in employment, for jobs for all,
for equal work for whites and Negroes, for women as well as
men, for ending jim crow in housing, for enactment of an
FEPC, against fascism and McCarthy ism, and for peace.
Meetings should be held, demonstrations arranged under broad
united front conferences. These meetings can be the beginning
of the most popular and broadest coalition activity that our
country has seen in a long time. ”
*Underlined portion italicized in original text.
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r
' r '. . . Hundreds of trade union, church, professional, student,
national -group and other organizations with predominantly white
membership — including many in the South — axe formally on
record in support of the Court decision. The big need now is to
get them all into motion.
ji
"Petitions should be filed with the Supreme Court prior to
the December 7th hearing on implementing decrees. Conferences
and mass meetings should be organized. Resolutions should be
adopted and publicized. Delegations should be sent to public
officials on national, state and local levels. . . .And every effort
of reaction to organize mob violence should be countered with
overwhelming mass protests by the democratic forces of the
■ people. 11 23
r
The Communist Party has been particularly vehement against
opposition arising to the enforcement of segregation in the Southern States
and has alleged lack of enforcement by Congress and Federal authorities.
[ An editorial in the Daily Worker, east coast communist newspaper, in the
latter part of 1955 declares:
t
| "Most of the segregated schools which were declared illegal
on May 17, 1954, and again on May 31, 1955, are still segregated.
\ White supremacists, using legal technicalities and terror, including
murder, have challenged the authority of the high court and federal
law and order. . „ . "24
On January 12, 1956, in an editorial entitled "Dixiecrat
Defiance, " the Daily Worker asserted:
r
- 17 -
■n
"State after state in the Deep South has announced its
planned refusal to comply with a U a S, Supreme Court order.
Brownell has pretended not to hear these threats, not even
when they reached the level of a movement to Nullify' all
federal laws dealing with desegregation. ..."
", . „ The times cry out for an Attorney General with a
passion for defense of the Constitution and the rights it bestows
upon all citizens. Brownell, by his actions and his lack of
action has proven beyond a doubt that he does not meet present
requirements. "25
In March, 1956, 96 Southern Congressmen issued a manifesto
pledging themselves to use "ail lawful means" to reverse the Supreme Court
decision outlawing racial segregation in public schools. This manifesto
was presented to both Houses of Congress and inserted in the C ongr e ssional
Record.
The Daily Worker editorialized on this resolution by saying:
"This is the Dixiecrat attempt to roll back the democratic
tide rising behind the movement to enforce the Supreme Court’s
rulings. These racists do not want ’moderation' or ’gradualism’
or even reasonableness* in approaching the desegregation issue.
They want nothing less than the perpetuation of the ’lawful means’
by which they have ignored the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. "
~ 18 =
"The 96 Congressmen have borrowed heavily from the
secessionist documents of 1860 in drafting their declaration.
Their arrogant attempt to intimidate Congress and the nation
has not met with a resolute determination to enforce the
Constitution and federal law everywhere in the United States.
Let Congress pass civil rights laws. Compel Brownell to
enforce the right to vote for southern Negroes I Push the
Justice Department into actions to enforce the Supreme Court' s
desegregation decisions. Oust Eastland from the U„ S. Senate.
End the retreat before the Dixieerat minority in Congress and
the country at large. "26
a. Autherme J. Lucy
Probably the case most widely publicized in both the communist
and the free press of a Negro attempting to enroll in a hitherto all-white
university is that of Autherine J, Lucy. Subsequent to the May 17, 1954,
decision of the Supreme Court invalidating segregation. Miss Lucy was
admitted to the University of Alabama by order of a U. S. District Court
in Alabama. After attending the University for three days under full
police protection, she was excluded from class by the board of trustees on
February 6, 1956. This decision was made under the University's police
power and for the protection of students, the faculty, and Miss Lucy in view
of demonstrations by students and outsiders.
The communist press decried this action by University officials
and demanded Federal action in the matter ;
- 19 -
"It is a national disgrace that the university authorities have
indefinitely barred Miss Lucy from, the campus . This is craven
surrender or, worse,’ collusion with the Kluxers. It is not
Autherine Lucy but the wretched band of lawbreakers who. should
have been barred from Alabama University. 11
"And where is President Eisenhower amidst this violation of
law? Silent, upon a farm in Gettysburg? And where are Attorney
General Brownell and G-Man Hoover? Blind, as usual, to
Dixiecrat defiance of the law?
"We are confident that a great outcry from the people will be
heard in the White House, demanding federal action to carry out
the law in Alabama.
Party members stated that the Communist Party would utiliz
every possible facility to create a national incident in connection with this
matter.
On February 9, 1956, Miss Lucy filed a petition with a U. S.
District Court in Alabama, asking the court to issue an order to show why
the University board should not be held id contempt. She alleged that the
suspension was not done for her personal safety but to appease others. On
February 29, 1956, the District Court ruled that University officials were
not in contempt of court; that the officials had acted in good faith in their
attempts to protect Miss Lucy; and that her suspension from the University
- 20 -
should be lifted as of March 5, 1956, However, the University expelled
Miss Lucy on March 1, 1956, on the basis that she had made false charges
and allegations against University officials,
Benjamin J. Davis, a member of the national board of the
Communist Party, USA, who had been convicted under the Smith Act of
1940, ’’rapped the expulsion of Autherine Lucy and called for prosecution
of the trustees who voted the action. " He demanded:
", . , enforcement of the Supreme Court decision of de-
segregation and the arrest and prosecution of Eastland,
Talmadge and T the gang which controls the White Citizens
Councils, and all others who conspire to keep the Negro
people from enjoying rights guaranteed under the
Constitution. ' "28
b. Bus Boycott in Montgomery, Alabama
In early December, 1955, Negro leaders in Montgomery,
Alabama, demanded equal rights for their race on segregated city buses.
The issue was precipitated when a Negro se ams tress refused to move to
the rear of the bus, was arrested, and fined $14. Immediately thereafter,
Negroes instituted a boycott of the buses, causing police cruisers to
escort the buses through Negro areas to prevent violence. On
February 22, 1956, approximately one hundred Negro religious and political
leaders in the Montgomery area were indicted on charges of violating a
state antiboycott sta t ute .
21
Communists immediately took up tfie defense of the Negro lead'
and the boycott* Eugene Dennis, general secretary of the Communist Pa
USA* urged Federal intervention* declaring that:
M * » - united response, courage and organisational inventive 1
of the entire Negro community of Montgomery has electrified tl
whole country* It is giving birth to a movement of mass civil
disobedience to unconstitutional jimcrow statutes, and mass cr
enforcement of the law of the land. . „ * "
"Ail workers — Left, progressive and conservative -- can
be expected to join with the heroic Negro people and all other
sincere advocates of the Constitution in full devotion to this
An editorial in the Daily Worker claimed that the Federal
. . duty bound, under law, to act against officials who,
under cover of law, deprive citizens of their basic and federal!
guaranteed rights. . ♦ . 11
''Meantime, it is up to all of us to bombard the Department
of Justice for action before extra- legal violence follows illegal
f law, 1 If Montgomery is the Diexiecrats’ first line of defiance,
it is for patriots democracy’s first line of defense. "
Negro religious leaders sponsored a nationwide "Day of Prayer
to aid the boycott movement. The communist press exploited this situatic
wherever possible and said it:
historic struggle* "29
Government was:
■= 22 -
”• • * marked a moral and social renaissance in American life
stemming from the resistance of southern Negroes to racist
tyranny. "
"Maybe the millions who prayed last Wednesday will continue
their efforts against segregation by pressing the President and
federal agencies to act against those who illegally deny Negroes
their rights as American citizens. "31
In May, 1956, an incident, involving the arrest of two Negro
college students for sitting beside a white woman in a bus, took place in
Tallahassee, Florida, precipitating a similar Negro boycott of buses in
that city.
The Communist Party, USA, has placed the utmost emphasis on
propagandizing the alleged murder of Emmett Louis Till. Till, a fourteen-
year-old Negro youth from Chicago, Illinois, was reportedly kidnapped and
murdered in Mississippi, in August, 1955, The two white men charged with
his murder were acquitted after a trial* and a grand jury later refused to
indict them for kidnapping. The Party as well as its numerous front
organizations regarded this case as an excellent opportunity to further its
agitation and propaganda campaign among the Negroes. The Party press
2
The Till Case
- 23 -
has carried innumerable articles on the Till case and issued many pamphlets
and leaflets regarding it, invariably referring to the case as the Till
"lynching, TT
In September, 1955, the national administrative committee* of
the Party issued a memorandum to all districts regarding the Till "lynching,
pointing out that the marked increase of anti- Negro terror in the South
should become the immediate concern of the entire Party membership. In
this connection ,the Party suggested (1) development of the movement to
force the Eisenhower Administration to intervene in the Till case, (2)
\ 5 - .
petitioning of city councils throughout the United States to urge the Attorney
General to act, and (3) projecting the "struggle" into the preparation for
the convening of Congress in 1956. The memorandum said that the above
actions would necessitate hundreds of thousands of postcards, telegrams,
letters, petitions, and resolutions to the President and the Attorney General
from individuals and organizations.
The Daily Worker subsequently proclaimed:
"THE SAVAGE LYNCHING of the Till boy must be fought
militant ly. This has already been well begun by many demon-
strations and other activities, * . . The whole American people
should be aroused to the terrible outrage of this boy lynching,
*The national administrative committee is now dissolved. For over a year,
this group largely directed the Party's open activities,
- 24 -
And, not the least important, this case should be publicized
all over the world- Abroad it will get a powerful response from
the democratic people, who already thoroughly hate the U P S e
jimcrow system, with all its oppression, exploitation, and
murder, Tt “
The Communist Party has attempted to enlist the support of any
organization, communist or noncomxnunist, interested in this campaign*
According to information originating from a communist spokesman, the Party
was able to reach an agreement wit^ leaders of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People on a plan of work. The Party regards
the Till matter as a historical event and the turning point in the struggle
for Negro liberation.
struggle for "Negro liberation" is its attempt to increase Negro representa-
tion in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of state and national
governments. Party Voice, a bulletin issued by the New York State Com-
munist Party, asserted that:
"The fight for Negro representation must become a major
concentration throughout our Party; and bur most immediate
concern must be to win new advances in the fail elections, of 1955.
In the process, efforts should be made to lay the basis for still
further gains in 1956. TT ^3
3* Negro Representation
One of the key points in the Communist Party program in its
- 25 -
Albert E. Blumberg, legislative director of the Communist Party,
USA, who was convicted under the Smith Act of 1940, called for "sharply
increased Negro representation in conventions, Congressional and other
posts- 1,34
The communist press hailed the appointment of J. Ernest Wilkins,
an Assistant Secretary of Labor, as the "first time in history - a Negro has
been appointed to a sub- Cabinet post in the United States Government. "
But the communist press deplored the fact that in 1955 "there is still just
one Negro judge in the entire federal court setup, " suggesting that' "it is time
to revive pressure for a Negro U* S. Supreme Court judge when a vacancy
occurs, as well as Negro federal judges at all levels. "36
The fight for increased Negro representation includes the demands
„ abolition of the poll tax, federal protection of the righ
to register and vote, passage of an anti- lynching bill, and
reduction of Congressional representation of States which
deliberately disfranchise Negroes- . - *
Although the Party proposes to conduct this struggle on a nation-
wide basis, its main emphasiB is in the Southern States where Negro
representation is disproportionate** Pettis Perry, chairman of the national
*According to population .
for:
- 26 -
Negro commission of the Communist Party, USA, and convicted under the
Smith Act of 1940, pointed out that "in some states, especially in. the
South, the fight for Negro representation today must move from the general
question of representation to that of proportional Negro representation, ®
The Communist Party’s course calls for an immediate solution
to this problem — an immediate increase in Negro representation. It decries
the "gradual" approach ciaimiug that it leads to "the gradual eclipse of
Negro citizenship." Abner W. Berry, Negro affairs editor of the Daily
Worker , in speaking of Senator Eastland of Mississippi, declared:
* , Eastland’s very seat in the U. S. Congress is a result
of the victory of that ’gradual’ approach, for in 1875, Eastland’s
state had a mass of Negro voters. The Lieutenant Governor, the
Superintendent of Education and a number of state legislators
were Negroes. Today, 80 years later, there are none, and it is
Eastland's intention that there will never be any more. "39
4. Housing
The Communist Party, USA, strongly opposes segregation in
housing and points out that this is one of the issues around which Negro
rights can be advanced and Negro-white unity built. The communist press
propagandizes this situation whenever possible. The Worker , Sunday
edition of the Daily Worker, in September, 1955, declared that:
- 27 -
. Outside of discrimination in the field of employment
and education. . . there is another big area in which minority
groups — particularly Negroes — suffer grieivous discriminations.
This is in housing. "
" T lntrusion T of Negro families into white neighborhoods is
still resented with threats of violence, stoning and riots. The
Negro ghettos stand out late sore thumbs. .
In July, 1953, such a situation developed in the Trumbull housing
development in Chicago, Illinois, a project operated by the Chicago Housing
Authority. A Negro family moved into Trumbull Park which at that time had
only white tenants. Shortly thereafter, periodic acts of vandalism began to
occur in the project including breaking of windows of automobiles driven by
Negroes. A police emergency plan was put into effect and a large number of _____
police were detailed at the project on a 24-hour basis.
On August 20, 1953, a picket line of some forty persons demonstrated
before the offices of the Chicago Housing Authority, opposing any move of
the Authority to evict the Negroes from Trumbull Park. The pickets were
led by a Communist Party member while other Party members were present
in the picket line. Leaflets were distributed protesting eviction. The Civil
Rights Congress was also reportedly interested in protesting any eviction in
%
>/
- 28 -
this area. This organization has been designated as a communist front
group coming ’within the purview of Executive Order 10450.
The Communist Party called for the development of an energetic
campaign involving the organized labor movement in the area together with
church groups and mass organizations. The campaign to be organized
demanding an end to violence included:
1. A campaign around the elections seeking to influence all
candidates to make this a major issue
2. Letters and telegrams to local and national public officials
calling for prosecution of the violators of the law, use of the
National Guard to protect the Negro people, and a grand jury
investigation of the responsible individuals
3. Delegations to the mayor and aldermen
4. Letters to the press
5. Meetings of all possible mass organizations particularly
among the trade-unions
The communist press in late 1955 demanded an immediate
expansion of the "inadequate federal housing program, ” and insisted that
"this program has to have guarantees written into the law that there will
be no discrimination as to occupancy. Tt41
ttt PRINCIPAL communist party-negro front groups
A. National Negro Labor Council
Until the Spring of 1956, the principal communist -Negro front group
in the United States was the National Negro Labor Council (NNLC), It was
organized in October, 1951, at Cincinnati, Ohio, with the support of the
Communist Party, USA. The Party urged "all out support" for the program
of the NNLC which included the following points:
1. A nationwide drive for 100, 000 additional jobs for Negro
workers, with particular emphasis on jobs for Negro women
2 .
3.
A campaign to solicit a million signatures petitioning for a
national Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC)
Universal adoption of a "Model FEPC Contract Clause” in
every union contract with management guaranteeing hiring,
upgrading, promotion, on-the-job training, et cetera, without
discrimination
4, A pledge to work with other Negro rights organizations in an
attempt to influence the trade-union movement to support
demands for abolition of the poll tax, antilynch legislation,
official union action against police brutality and other
invasions of the rights of Negro union members, and integrated
housing
At its founding convention, the NNLC adopted resolutions calling
for trade-union organization in the South on the basis of absolute equality,
- 30 -
freedom, and "self-determination" for oppressed colonial peoples through-
out the world, and an end to the so-called United States policy of supporting
colonial "oppressors, "
During its existence, the NNLC directed campaigns against
discriminatory practices engaged in by certain major industries in the
United States. These included a drive to win better positions for Negro women
in Sears, Roebuck and Company, an attempt to obtain jobs for Negroes as
pilots, stewardesses, ticket clerks, et cetera, in the airlines, and a
national campaign to upgrade Negroes in the railroad industry.
Beginning in 1953, the NNLC attempted to promote a non-
disc riminatory hiring policy among certain large industrial plants being
built in Louisville, Kentucky. Using the slogan, "Let Freedom Crash the
Gateway to the South, ,T the NNLC advanced its campaign on a nationwide
scale through newspaper advertisements, petitions, delegations, and
leaflets. The NNLC also filed a complaint against one of the plants involved
with the President's Committee on Government Contracts.
In connection with the merger of the AFL-CIO, the NNLC sent
an "open letter" to the heads of these organizations demanding an unequivocal
- 31 -
equal- membership-rights constitutional provision and the election of
Negro trade -unionists to top offices in the new organization. One hundred
thousand copies of this '“open letter" were distributed and circulated
nationally.
While the main sources of funds of the NNLC were membership
dues, contributions from members, and contributions and the sale of
literature at meetings and rallies, it did obtain considerable financial
support on certain occasions from so-called left-wing trade-unions such
as the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UERMWA). *
In January, 1954, the NNLC was designated by the Attorney General
as coming within the purview of Executive Order 10450. On September 28,
1955, the Attorney General, under the provisions of the Internal Security
Act of 1950, petitioned the Subversive Activities Control Board for an order
to require the NNLC to register as a communist front organization. The
order was granted and a petition served against the NNLC. A hearing was
set for April 30, 1956, for the NNLC to appear before the Subversive
Activities Control Board, However, on April 29, 1956, the NNLC voted to
dissolve itself.
*UERMWA was expelled from the CIO in 1949 on the grounds that it was
communist dominated.
- 32 -
While increasing financial difficulties were a factor, the
principal reason for the dissolution was to circumvent the Government’s
attempt to compel the NNLC to register with the Attorney General,
Coleman A. Young, executive secretary of the NNLC, commenting on the
dissolution, said:
The Michigan. Association, of Negro Trade Unionists (MANTU)
was organized in 1955 in Detroit for the purpose of seeing a Negro placed
on the international executive hoard of the AFL-CIO. In November, 1955,
it was reported that if MANTU materialized on a national basis the National
Negro Labor Council would dissolve and would be replaced by the Michigan
Association of Negro Trade Unionists.
MANTU held a conference in November, 1955, in Detroit, at
which several hundred were present from about eight different states. This
conference concerned itself with .Negro rights in the AFL-CIO merger and
adopted the following four resolutions:
« T We are unwilling to subject our thousands of members and
supporters, who are innocent of any wrongdoing, to the loss of
jobs, blacklisting, and other forms of persecution entailed in the
registration requirements of the unconstitutional Me Carr an
Internal Security Act . ^2
B. National Association of Negro Trade Unionists
1„ Michigan Association of Negro Trade Unionists
- 33 -
1 . Resolution on Negro representation and membership rights
dealing with agitation for a Negro representative on the
merged executive board of the A PL -CIO
2 = Resolution on organization for the purpose of initiating such
action as would result in the advancement of the principles of
democracy and Negro rights in the trade -union movement,
particularly with regard to the AFL-CIO merger
3. Resolution on an all-out drive to organize the Southern
workers on an equal rights basis
4, Resolution on the Till case characterizing it "as part of the
great struggle for democratic rights and trade -union organ-
izations now being waged in the South"
A high-ranking Communist Party leader in commenting on this
conference stated that approximately 20-30 Party members were present
but remained in the background. He declared that the Negro trade -union
movement at this time was not under the control or influence of the Com-
munist Party, but that the Party planned to develop it as the merger of the
AFL-CIO progressed.
On April 29 f 1956, the same day on which the NNLC was dissolved,
MANTU held another conference in Detroit at which permanent officers were
elected, William Henry Johnson, recording secretary of Local 600, UAW, AFL
CIO, was elected president, and Nat Turner, executive vice president.
David William Moore, a member of the Communist Party, was elected
organizational director.
- 34 -
2. Negro Trade Unionists Committee
Another Negro trade-union group was formed in October, 1955,
in New York City under the title of Negro Labor Unionists Committee, later
changed to Negro Trade Unionists Committee {NTUC). This organization
was reportedly the result of a meeting of Negro leaders present at the
UERMWA national convention held in September, 1955, The NTUC was
designed as a national organization and was subdivided into ten groups
throughout the country. Its chief purpose was to guarantee full and equal
membership rights for Negroes and minority groups in the AFL-CIO and to
fight for trade “Union organization of both Negroes and whites in the Southern
States.
leaflets throughout the United States and to foster recognition of these aims
through churches and fraternal organizations.
3, National Association of Negro Trade Unionists cf New Jersey
In the early part of 1956, another group with similar aims and
purposes was formed in New Jersey under the name of the National
Association of Negro Trade Unionists of New Jersey.
The NTUC proposed to advance its aims by mass distribution of
-35 -
4.
Amalgamation of These Three Organisations
These three organisations held a national steering committee
conference in Detroit, Michigan, on February 24 and 25 P 1956, and adopted
the name National Association of Negro Trade Unionists, A statement was
adopted indicating the purpose of the group is to organize the unorganized
workers, concentrating strongly on the Negroes,
Two committees were established, a resolutions committee and
a constitutional committee. The former endorsed a civil rights conference
scheduled for March, 1956, under the sponsorship of the National Associati
for the Advancement of Colored People and other supporting groups.
- 36 -
IV* THE COMMUNIST PARTY — NEGRO-FR ATERNAL, PROTEST-
AND - IMPROVEMENT ORGANIZATIONS
A. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) is unquestionably the most important agency for the Negro people
in the United States "in their struggle against caste* " It was started on
the initiative of a group of white citizens who in 1909 called a conference,
supported by both Negroes and whites, to organize a "national conference
for the discussion of present evils, the voicing of protests, and the renewal
In 1910, this group merged with the Niagara Movement (formed
in 1905 by a group of Negroes who urged protest rather than accommodation
in an effort to secure equal rights for the Negroes) to form the NAACP with
the objective of winning full equality for the Negro as an American citizen.
The national office of the NAACP in New York City supervises
the work of approximately 1,355 branches, youth councils, and college
chapters located throughout 41 states, the District of Columbia, and Alaska.
While the leadership of the NAACP has always been interracial, the
majority of its membership, which is largely confined to upper-class
of the struggle for civil and political liberty. ft
- 37 -
Negroes, is practically all Negro. According to a report of the 47th annual
convention of the NAACP held in June, 1956, this organization reached a
new high of 309,000 members with gains concentrated in the South, Income
soared to a record $635, 000. in addition to its official publication. The
Crisis, it publishes literature on various aspects of the Negro question.
The major portion of its work is carried out through its national
office which keeps a constant check on Negro rights and attempts to secure
passage of favorable state and Federal legislation. In a broad sense, the
NAACP strives to create favorable publicity for the Negro and air his
grievances before the American public. In recent years, it has shifted its
emphasis from the defense of the Negro to a more offensive position in
infiltrate and gain control of the NAACP, using tactics consistent with Party
policy during its alternate militant and "united front’ * periods . It recognizes
the NAACP as "the most important Negro organization, dedicated to the
fight for Negro equality, " At a national conference of the Communist Party,
USA, held in 1953, a statement was issued to the effect that?
Ms behalf.
Throughout the years, the Communist Party, USA f has tried to
- 38 -
"... The N. A. A. C. P. is increasingly becoming a
coordinating center for all major organizations among the Negro
people, and the pivot for the further advancement of the Negro -
labor alliance, . . . "43
Accordingly, the Party instructed all of its Negro members to
join established Negro people's organizations including the NAACP:
", □ . the time has come to put an end to the self-imposed
isolation from the Negro community of key Negro cadres.
We must insist that all Negro Party members, without exception,
develop and strengthen their ties with the organized sections
of the Negro community. "44
The Communist Party has had a certain measure of success in
controlling isolated chapters of the NAACP but has been unable to secure
domination of the organization on a state or national level. The NAACP
is alert to those instances where communist control has been effected.
At its 41st national convention held in June,; 1950, the NAACP went on
record as opposing communism and empowered its board of directors to |f
revoke the charter of any chapter found to be communist controlled. In < —
June, 1955, it reaffirmed its stand against communism, calling it an anti-
democratic way of life, and warned its branches to be constantly alert
against communist infiltration.
Persons identified with the Communist Party and the NAACP have,
in the past, acted jointly and frequently engaged in parallel activities. Howeve;
39
must be kept in mind that the ultimate aims of these two groups are
entirely distinct. The Communist Party seeks to foster discord and dis-
content among the Negro race by agitation and propaganda in order to
facilitate the rise of socialism in the United States, whereas the goal
of the NAACP is to achieve Ml racial integration and equality within the
present form of Government. * One recent instance in which the two
organizations reportedly cooperated was in the Till case which has been
previously described. According to information originating from a
communist spokesman, the Party was able to reach an agreement with
leaders of the NAACP on a plan of work. The NAACP has taken an
extremely aggressive stand in the Till case and has sponsored numerous
rallies and meetings in protest against the death of Till and the conduct
of the trial in Mississippi. The Communist Party has afforded the Till
case continued attention, constantly urging the Department of Justice to
intervene, and agitating for a mass march on Washington, D. C , , to
desegregation in housing, at public beaches and amusement centers, in
transportation, and in the television industry. The Supreme Court decisioi
* It is to be noted that the Communist Party, USA, in order to confuse the
American people, is attempting to make its policies parallel to those of
the NAACP on controversial, racial issues.
enforce its demands.
In recent years, the NAACP has actively campaigned for
- 40
against school segregation in May, 1954, was acclaimed by the NAACP
as the high point for civil rights during that year. At its 44th national
convention held in 1953, the NAAGP promulgated the slogan "Free by f 63"
which launched a program to win total integration of Negroes by 1963, the
one^ hundredth anniversary of the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamatior
The Communist Party has given considerable publicity to all of these issues
and has attempted to further them whenever possible.
In March, 1956, a national conference on civil rights, attended
by 1, 500 delegates, was held in Washington, D a C, , under the sponsorship
of the NAACP and other supporting organizations. Its over-all objective
was to bring to the attention of Congress the folLowing program, certain
measures of which, if enacted into law, would:
2, Withhold Federal funds from any institution which
defies the constitutional prohibition against segregation
in public facilities
3, Make lynching and other race-inspired acts of violence
Federal offenses
1, Create job equality through the establishment of an
effective Federal FEPC
4 .
Abolish the poll tax and create protection of the right to
vote
5 .
Establish a civil rights division in the Department of
Justice with authority to protect civil rights in all sections
of the country
6. Create a permanent Federal Commission on Civil Rights
7. Eliminate remaining segregation and other forms of
discrimination in interstate travel
Activities of the conference included briefing on how delegates
should conduct themselves when contacting congressmen; speeches on
the need for additional civil rights legislation; talks by individuals from
Southern States who were allegedly victims of civil rights violations;
speeches by representatives of the Democratic and Republican Parties; and
contacts with congressmen with a report session on results trf contacts
significant* Furthermore, at a prior meeting of the Party’s national Negro
commission, Party leaders had declared that the principal task of the Party
was to influence this mobilization of the NAACP, Delegates to the conferem
were screened by the NAACP, but the Party attempted to gain acceptance of
a form of observer status so that persons other than approved delegates
with congressmen.
The Communist Party considered this conference to be very
- 42 -
could participate. The Party favored a program including support for
proposals by Congressmen Adam Clayton Powell of New York and
Charles C. Diggs of Michigan to unseat the Mississippi representation in
Congress; support for all civil rights, desegregation, and anlipoll tax
legislation; attacks against Attorney General Brownell; and a fight for a
new enforcement order from the Supreme Court for desegregation.
Seven Party functionaries are known to have attended various
sessions of the conference as spectators since none of them had been able
to obtain authorized credentials. Communist literature such as the Daily
Worker and a pamphlet entitled Behind the Lynching of Emmett Louis Till
was distributed outside conference sessions.
The Party was quite disgruntled at its extremely limited role in
the conference as was evidenced by Abner W. Berry in his column ”Qn the
Way, " in the Daily Worker:
, .the assembly leadership caused unnecessary griping and
confusion by applying too much zeal in keeping delegations sma!
blocking all attempts to discuss issues and in insisting upon
injecting the alien note of anti-Communism.
However, Berry pointed out that T 'the movement for civil rights
was able to surmount these political diversions and make its imprint on
the official mind of Washington.
- 43 -
The NAACP held its 47th annual convention in San Francisco,
California, from June 26 to July 1, 1956. It reaffirmed its anti-
communist position and at the same time extended its policy of non-
cooperation with communist- controlled groups to declare communists
ineligible for membership in the NAACP. The NAACP also added the
National Association of Negro Trade Unionists to its list of labor groups
forbidden cooperation with the NAACP.
B. Improved Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of the World
The Improved Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of the World
(IBFOE of W) was organized in 1898 as a fraternal organization for Negroes
with the following objectives!
1. Promote better citizenship among Negroes
2. Promote belter relations between Negroes and the
race
3 . Provide an educational program for the enlightenment of
the Negro and establish scholarships as awards to deserving
individuals for furtherance of their education in specialized
fields
4. Promote the general health, welfare, and status of the Negrc
through Christian principles, doctrines, and teachings based
upon the American way of life
- 44 -
5= Establish a fraternal organization to provide for economic,
social, and recreational facilities for Negroes
The IB POE of W is an entirely separate organization from the
well-known Benevolent Protective Order of Elks (BPOE).
Lodges of the IB POE of W exist in practically every major city
in the United States* each Lodge having a women's aisxiliary section known as
Temples. Affairs of the organization are handled by the office of the grand
secretary in Washington, D. C. * assisted by the grand exalted rjiler in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The IBPOE of W issues a publication known
as the Washington Eagle published in Washington, D. C.
Prior to the 55th national convention of this organization held in
Chicago, Illinois, in August* 1954, the Communist Party, USA, was said
to be in the process of establishing a policy accelerating its infiltration of th
IBPOE of W, At that time* 21 Party members were reportedly affiliated
with the IBPOE of W although none held a top office.
The Communist Party fraction of the IBPOE of W held a pre-
convention caucus at which it was decided that Party work in this organiza-
tion should proceed slowly and should concentrate on the civil liberties*
legislative, and educational committees. Meetings were held in New York
- 45 -
City and Chicago prior to and during the convention for the purpose of
establishing the precise Communist Party policy to be followed during the
convention, Pettis Perry, chairman of the Part/ s national Negro commission,
was the "guiding light" in effectuating this Party policy. Party members felt
that they were successful at the convention in that (1) all officers they
backed were successful, (2) every member was acceptable to the other siate
delegates, and (3) the resolutions they wanted passed by the convention were
incorporated into the final convention resolutions. These resolutions dealt
with such issues as discrimination in industry, PEPC, segregation in schools,
peace, outlawing of the poll tax, and others, which matters are of vital
interest to all Negroes whether Communist Party members or not.
Consequently, it cannot be stated that these resolutions were communist
Meetings of a number of Communist Party members were again
held preceding the 56th annual convention of the IBPOE of W the following
year. Discussion centered around the development of a joint program
between the NAACP and the Negro Elks relative to EEPC, integration and
the right to vote in the South, and Negro representation at all levels of
inspired.
- 46 -
government, as well as arousing interest of state delegates at the con-
vention in resolutions dealing with civil liberties, political action, the
Walter -Me Carr an Act, and unity between the IBPOE of W and the NAACP.
The report of the resolutions committee for the 1955 IBPOE of W
convention included resolutions against discrimination in employment, housini
Negro representation, and transportation, and commended the NAACP for
its efforts in implementing the United States Supreme Court decision against
school segregation.
During early 1955, the national administrative committee of the
Communist Party issued a memorandum defining certain tasks for Party
members and any other individuals concerned with the struggle for Negro
rights. This document pointed out that the primary organizations through
which these tasks could be achieved are the established mass organizations
of the Negro people and joint Negro-white membership including the Negro^
Elks. (p
Communist infiltration into this organization can be exemplified
by one communist couple who joined the IBPOE of W upon the direct orders
of the Communist Party. The wife was initiated into the women’s auxiliary
of the Negro Elks in March, 1955, her husband having been a member of
- 47 -
the Elks for several months. In the latter part of April, 1955, she reportedly
was actively engaged in a fund-raising drive for her auxiliary. By August,
1955, she was advancing in the Elks organization, due to her diligent efforts.
Her husband was also persevering in his activity in the Elks and in the latter
part of 1955 was elected chairman of the civil liberties committee of Ms lodgf
In July, 1955, the Communist Party reportedly had 88 of its members in
the IBPOE of W as contrasted with 21 in 1954.
= 48 -
v. results of communist party activity directed
““ TOWARD NEGROES "
A* Effects within the Communist Party (White Chauvinism)
Although the Communist Party has consistently advocated full
social, political, industrial, economic, and political equality for the Negroes,
the application of certain facets of this policy within its own organization
must be considered.
The Communist Party, USA, has frequently elected or appointed
Negroes, at least nominally, to positions of authority > Two Negroes,
Henry Winston and Benjamin J„ Davis, Jr , , were members of its national
committee prior to their convictions in 1949 for conspiracy to violate the
Smith Act of 1940. Three other Negroes, James E. Jackson, Claude
Lightfoot, and Pettis Perry were alternate members of the Party's national
committee. All three have been convicted of violation of the Smith Act,
and Jackson and Perry are presently serving sentences under this
conviction. In addition, Negroes have frequently held other positions of
importance in the communist movement. Doaey A. Wilkerson is a former
member of the Party’s national committee and is presently instructor and
- 49 *
\i 'i i -i
director of faculty and curriculum at the Jefferson School of Social
Science which has been designated as a communist front organization
coming within the purview of Executive Order 10450. Abner W, Berry
is also a former member of the national committee and is presently Negro
affairs editor of the Daily Worker , east coast communist newspaper.
Yet, in spite of this and the voluminous publicity which it has
given its slogan of equal rights for the Negroes, the Communist Part
throughout its history has had to wage a continuing fight against what
describes as "white chauvinism, " or "white supremacy. "* hi 1953, the
Communist Party declared that "in recent years the Party has waged an
intensive fight against egressions of white chauvinism within the Party.
We must continue this fight. "** It noted, however, that the "past two
years have witnessed a noticeable decline in the struggle against white
chauvinism and for Negro rights in a number of key districts. Li several
respects this is also true on a national scale.
*Webster T s New International Dictionary, Second Edition, Unabridged, 1955,
defines chauvinism as "the sentiments or disposition of a chauvin; hence
vainglorious or exaggerated patriotism. "
**Italicized in original text.
- 50 -
In 1954, William Z. Foster, national chairman of the Communist
Party, USA, pointed out that the Party’s struggle against chauvinism must
be combined with the fight against Negro bourgeois nationalism. He stated:
' ’While the Communist Party militantly combats white
chauvinism as the worst ideological menace to Negro-white
co-operation and solidarity, it does not ignore the lesser
danger of Negro bourgeois nationalism as a divisive force. It
fights on both fronts. Bourgeois -nationalist ideology 'is the
instrument through which the Negro petty bourgeois leaders, posing
as champions of general "race" interests, i. e., the interests of
the whole Negro people, seek to rally them in support of the
narrow class interests of the Negro bourgeoisie. ’ It manifests
itself in a two-fold way : in reformist illusions of automatic
integration into white institutions and, consequently, in the idea
that there is no need to struggle against the white oppressors;
or in sectarian, isolationist policies of segregationism. In both
cases it is a surrender to white supremacy,
§
In 1955, Foster further declared that: (|
", , , there are more than a few traces of white chauvinism
even in our own ranks, although our Party is far in advance of
other organizations as to being free of this poison. The fight
against white chauvinism is one we must make constantly, uot^
only among the white masses, but also in our own Party. . , , "
The national committee of the Communist Party, USA, held an
enlarged meeting in New York City on April 28- May 1, 1956. While there,
several of the Party's Negro leaders criticized previous Party policy in the
field of Negro activities. They complained because there were so few Negroes
~ 51 -
and no Negro women present at this meeting. They char ged that the Party
had failed -to eliminate white chauvinism and urged that another meeting be
held in the near future to deal exclusively with the Negro question.
To alleviate this situation, one western district of the Communist
Party recommended that county committees should evaluate their Negro
work by discussions with various Negro Party members; Negro committees
should be established to analyze work in Negro communities; and each area
should be examined for its activity in community organizations, trader union
and its educational programs,
B, Effects on Noncommunist Negroes (Negro Membership in th^>-
Communist Party) ^
Throughout its history, the Communist Party, USA, has
constantly endeavored to increase its Negro membership. According to
William Z. Poster, the highest percentage of Negro membership in the
Communist Party was attained in 1947 when it totaled 17 per cent of the
entire national membership.
Along with the decline of the national membership since 1948,
the Communist Party has experienced an even greater decline, percentage-
wise, in its Negro membership. At a national conference of the Party
- 52 -
held in 1953 , a report was given on the Party T s work among Negroes. The
report asserted that in recent years there had been a decline in Negro
membership and noted the reasons therefore
T \ s .The attacks upon our Party by the white ruling class,,
the concessions, even though few, thrown, in the direction of
Negro reformists, the growth of Red-baiting influences among
Negroes, and the lack of sufficient struggle by the Party to
adjust to these new developments, have, among other causes,
contributed to this decline. * . . "50
hi November, 1954, the New York State Communist Party, which
is the largest district in the country, commented on the loss of Negro
members, giving as the reasons for this decline, the attacks made against
the Party and the failure of Party clubs, sections, and higher bodies to
maintain their vanguard communist role of militant struggle in behalf of
Negro rights.
As of June 30, 1956, the Negro membership of the Communist
Party, USA, was reliably estimated to be seven per cent of the total national
membership of the Party. The total national membership was estimated
at slightly less than 30, 000. The Party 7 s Negro membership is in marked
contrast to 1947 when there were nearly 13, 000 Negroes, or 17 per cent,
in the total national membership of the Party of 75, 400.
- 53 -
SECRET,
SOURCES
1* The Fourth National Convention of the Workers (Communist) Party
of America (Daily Worker Publishing Company, Chicago),
1925* p. 123.
2, Louis E. Burnham* Behind the Lynching of Emmett Louis Till
(Freedom Associates* Inc.* New York)* December* 1955*
pp. 13;- 14.
3, Augusta Strong, "Former Harlem Councilman Gives His Views*”
The Worker* March 11* 1956* p. 3.
4, Carl Hirsch* "A Negro Communist Looks at the Future* " The
Worker, February 19* 1956, p. 7-S. ~
5, Max Weiss * "Geneva and f 56* " political Affairs * January* 1956, p* 17
6, Ibid,* pp, 17-18.
7. Party Voice, February* 1954, VoL 1* No. 11* . p. 3,
8, Eugene Dennis* The Communists Take A New Look (New Century
Publishers* New York)* 1956, p. 44,
9* Edward E. Strong, "Developments in the Negro- Labor Alliance* ”
Political Affairs, February, 1956, p. 50. {§
10. Ibid. , p. 37,
11. Hal Simon, "The Labor Merger, ,r Political Affairs, January, 1956,
pp. 51-52.
12. Ibid,, p. 52.
13. Edward E, Strong* op. cit. * p. 43.
- 54 -
14. Hal Simon, op, cit. , p. 63 „
15. Id.
16 .
17.
18 .
19.
20 .
21 .
22 .
23,
24.
25.
26.
27.
28,
29.
Id.
Party Voice, op, cit., p, 10.
Party Voice, February, 1955, Vol. 3, No. 2, p. 6,
Hugh Bradley, Next Steps in the Struggle for Negro Freedom
(New Century Publishers, New Yorkjj, p. 39,
William Z, Foster, "The Supreme Court and Segregation, M Daily
Worker, May 20, 1954, p. 3.
Pettis Perry, "The November Elections and the Struggle for Jobs,
Peace, Equal Rights, and Democracy, " Political Affairs,
September, 1954, p. 32.
Samuel Sillen, "Our Time, " Masses fc Mainstream, June, 1954, p
The "tutors and Israel Amter, "The Fight for Desegregation, "
Party Voice, November, 1954, pp. 11, 12.
Editorial, Daily Worker, November 9, 1955, p. 5.
Editorial, Daily Worker. January 12, 1956, p. 5.
Editorial, Daily Worker, March 13, 1956, p. 5.
Editorial, Daily Worker, February 8, 1956, p. 5.
Roosevelt Ward, "Ben Davis Expulsion of Miss Lucy,
March 2, 1956, p. 2.
" Daily Works
Eugene Dennis, "Dennis Urges Gov't Disarm Racist Subversion, "
Daily Worker , February 29, 1956, pp. 1, 8.
- 55 -
30 .
Editorial, Daily Worker, February 27, 1956, p. 5.
31.
32.
33,
34.
35.
36.
37,
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
Editorial, Daily Worker , March 30, 1956, p. 5.
William Z. Foster, "Lynching and Strike Violence, 11 Daily Worker,
October 19, 1955, p. 5. —
Party Voice, June, 1955, Vol. 3, No, 6, p. 16,
Albert E, Blumberg, "The T 56 Elections, " Political Affairs,
January, 1956, p. 31.
Editorial, Daily Worker , March 9, 1954, p. 5.
Editorial, Daily Worker , July 7, 1955, p. 5,
Louis E, Burnham, op. cit. , p. 15.
Pettis Perry, "The Negro People in the Struggle Against
McCarthyism, " Political Affairs, May, 1954, p. 32.
Abner W. Berry, "On the Way," Daily Worker, February 21,
1956, p. 5.
James Doisen, "GOP Senators Hold UP Bill to Stop Discrimination
in Housing, 11 The Worker, September 11, 1955, p. 15.
Editorial, Daily Worker , September 7, 1955, p. 5,
"Dissolve Negro Labor Council, " Daily Worker , May 1, 1956, p. 3.
Hugh Bradley, op. cit ., p. 11.
Ibid. , p. 19.
Abner W. Berry, "On the Way, " Daily Worker, March 13,
p .5.
- 56 -
46.
Id.
47= Hugh Bradley, op= clip , pp. 45, 46.
48, William Z= Foster, The Negro People in, American Histor y
(International Publishers, New York), 1954 , p= 545 =
49* William Z= Foster, "Notes on the Struggle for Negro Rights, "
Political Affairs, May, 1955, p, 31=
50. Hugh Bradley, op. eit* , p. 45=
=■ 57 -
